1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information reading apparatus for reading image information on a document, and a program for executing information reading processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, three types of image reading apparatuses (to be referred to as a scanner hereinafter), that is, a sheetfeed scanner, a flatbed scanner, and a scanner which integrates a sheetfeed function and flatbed function (to be referred to as a combinational scanner hereinafter) are available. These scanners are selectively used as usages. For example, when documents in large quantities are to be scanned, the sheetfeed scanner is suitably used. When a book is to be scanned, the flatbed scanner is suitably used. The combinational scanner includes both these functions.
The combinational scanner can be used for various use applications since the sheetfeed and flatbed functions are integrated. However, the size of the combinational scanner is generally large, resulting in poor portability. Hence, the combinational scanner is not suitable for the user who also demands portability. The user who demands portability purchases both the flatbed scanner and sheetfeed scanner, and selectively uses them as usages. Since these scanners are relatively small, they can be removed from the desktop when they are not used.
In general, the scanner is connected to a personal computer (PC) via a connection interface such as USB (Universal Serial Bus). A program module called a scanner driver, which interfaces between an application and the scanner, controls the scanner. An image read by the scanner is passed to an application program (to be referred to as an application hereinafter) via the scanner driver, and the application displays or saves that image.
When the user purchases both the flatbed scanner and sheetfeed scanner, he or she has to respectively install a driver for the flatbed scanner (to be referred to as a flatbed driver hereinafter) and that for the sheetfeed scanner (to be referred to as a sheetfeed driver hereinafter) in a PC. Furthermore, the user has to select the scanner driver corresponding to the scanner to be used during execution of the application. Upon selecting the scanner driver, the application has to unload the scanner driver selected so far, load the newly selected scanner driver onto a memory, and initialize the scanner via the loaded scanner driver. These processes are generally time-consuming. For this reason, the user may feel stress every time he or she switches the scanners.
In order to solve this problem, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-234864 adopts a configuration that allows to connect a platen scanner (flatbed scanner) to a sheetfeed scanner, and an image read by the flatbed scanner undergoes image processing in the sheetfeed scanner.
However, a scanner system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-234864 adopts a configuration in which the sheetfeed scanner and flatbed scanner are connected via a dedicated platen interface, and the flatbed scanner controls the 0sheetfeed scanner. That is, the flatbed scanner does not function unless it is connected to the sheetfeed scanner. In other words, the flatbed scanner completely depends on the sheetfeed scanner (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-234864, paragraph 0031). Also, it is estimated that a scanner driver is required only for the sheetfeed scanner. This is because the flatbed scanner passes information of a read image to the sheetfeed scanner, which converts that information into image data (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-234864, paragraph 0035). In this manner, in the system described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-234864, only one scanner driver need be prepared, but the sheetfeed scanner has to include a control function of the flatbed scanner, and the dedicated interface that connects these scanners is also required. Furthermore, the flatbed scanner cannot be used when it is solely connected to the PC.